Two Connecticut Department of Correction facilities account for 66 percent of prisoner suicides while only housing 18 percent of the total incarcerated population, according to information obtained by Inside Investigator through a Freedom of Information Act request.
Of the suicides within correctional institutions from 2019 to 2025, 66% of them occurred at either Macdougall-Walker or Garner Correctional Institutes. Both penitentiaries are maximum security institutions.
The Office of Policy and Management (OPM) recorded 28 ‘in-custody’ suicides across all facilities from 2019 to 2025; however, ‘in-custody’ does not necessarily mean the individual was incarcerated. That designation applies to any death that occurs while an individual is under the jurisdiction of the state Department of Correction, including deaths in residential re-entry programs (such as Waterbury’s Bishop House), during active police pursuits, in hospitals following law-enforcement admission, or in individuals’ homes if they are discovered by police.
According to the OPM data, there were 15 suicides within Connecticut correctional institutions during that period. Five of those individual deaths were inmates at Macdougall-Walker, and another five were inmates at Garner. The remaining five were reported at different facilities, with no other institution recording more than one suicide between 2019 and 2025.
Three of the suicides within Garner Correctional Institute occurred within a few months of each other, from May 17th, 2023, to September 27th, 2023. Eight of the ten cases between the two institutions were classified as deaths by hanging.
Inside Investigator reached out several times to Warden Jesus Guadarrama of Macdougall-Walker and Warden Jeanette Maldonado of Garner for comment, but received no response. Inside Investigator also contacted the ombudsperson and the Director of External Affairs within the Connecticut Department of Correction, but again, received no response.
Access to this data comes on the heels of heightened scrutiny at Garner Correctional Institute, as the state released its findings from an investigation after two inmates died of accidental overdose while undergoing methadone treatment at the facility. The report found that the men were given excessively high initial doses of methadone, and their dosages were increased too rapidly. It also concluded that prison officials failed to account for potential interactions with other prescribed medications, intensifying the risk of respiratory suppression.
Additionally, Warden Guardarrama was recently named in a lawsuit filed by a current inmate, Jermaine Scott, who is charging Guardarrama and six other prison officials with ‘failure to protect’ after he was assaulted by another prisoner.
Both institutions made recent headlines after reporting two additional deaths within days of each other. The causes of these deaths have not yet been released as they are both under active investigation by the state, but officials are calling the incidents “unexpected.”
The concentration of suicides at these two facilities may be attributable to the populations they house. Garner Correctional Institute has a dedicated mental health division, making it the only facility in the state to offer such a service. Inmates from other prisons are often transferred there if they exhibit signs of serious depression or other potentially dangerous mood disorders.
Macdougall-Walker is the largest correctional facility in New England by prisoner population. The facility houses 1,454 inmates—roughly 13% of all incarcerated individuals in the state. While the size of Macdougall-Walker may contribute to its comparatively elevated suicide rate, Macdougall-Walker is not sufficiently bigger than other facilities to statistically account for the discrepancy.
As previously stated, Macdougall-Walker and Garner reported 66% of all in-facility suicides; by contrast, Cheshire Correctional Institute houses 1,191 inmates, making it the second most populous maximum-security prison in Connecticut, and yet reported zero inmate suicides from 2019 to 2025.
The OPM report further documented 24 violent in-custody deaths and 28 in-custody overdoses. Of the overdose deaths, 20 involved fentanyl or one of its derivatives. The majority of these overdose deaths occurred at state-contracted residences or halfway houses, such as New Haven’s REACH facility. Most victims of violent deaths died from gunshot wounds following a police pursuit. Five of the recorded overdoses and one of the recorded violent deaths occurred within correctional institutions.
There were 99 cases of in-custody deaths by natural causes, 33 of which occurred within correctional facilities. Eight of these 33 deaths occurred at MacDougall-Walker. The leading causes of natural death at MacDougall-Walker were cardiovascular disease and Covid-19.
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